For the past year I've been taking classes and reading books about how to create an effective presence as an artist online using social media. One point I keep hearing again and again is that you must post consistently and often. Maybe you can get by skipping a week every once and a while, but don't even think about taking a month off, or otherwise the algorithm will punish you! (Cue ominous music). The general recommendation is to recycle old posts if it's not feasible to have new work to show off all of the time. This makes running a social media account equivocal to running a radio station in my opinion - sometimes you'll have new material to premiere, but other times you'll have to play the hits to help fill the void.

After following this advice for over a year now, I want to make the opposing case that creatives should be allowed and even encouraged to hibernate from time to time on social media. Think about it, most episodic television shows do not air year round. They have seasons, and their audience is accustomed to this. Because the people who make these shows need time to rest, come up with new ideas, and then make them happen. It is a cyclical process, just like the phases of the moon. Trying to come up with material (either new or old) to share all of the time, leads to burnout and from my point of view, a higher chance of ending up with mediocre material. That is not the type of artist that I want to be. I want to make artworks that are thoughtful and moving. To get there, I need to take time for myself to observe, learn and practice. I need to enter a new moon phase and disappear for a bit online. Which is what I am doing now. In other words, I am in creative hibernation.

As of this year, I am embarking on a major new project - a collection of work that will eventually make its debut as part of a gallery show. I might give you a glimpse here and there as to what I'm up to, but I am hoping to make meaningful artworks that will be best appreciated once they are all done, with each piece displayed together. Just like listening to a musical album. Sure you could listen to a single and get excited, but there is added meaning when a song is listened to sequentially with the rest of the songs on an album. The impact is more profound. That is what I am going for. You'll still hear from me here on my blog, but you may not find me as active on social media. It's not that I've disappeared. It's that I'm working to manifest something special, something meaningful, into the world.

Your patience is appreciated.